Attorneys Urge More Industry Engagement On TSCA In Face Of Citizen Suits

Attorneys are urging industry groups to more closely track and engage with environmentalists’ litigation under the new Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), saying initial suits could set important precedents that will determine how the new law is ultimately implemented.

Herb Estreicher, an attorney and chemist with the law firm Keller and Heckman, noted during a Jan. 10 webinar that no industry groups intervened or filed an amicus brief in the recent case where public health groups successfully staved off EPA efforts to dismiss their suit challenging the agency’s rejection of their TSCA section 21 petition seeking to ban drinking water fluoridation.

Estreicher has previously told Inside EPA that the ruling rejecting EPA’s motion to dismiss could open the door to many more such petitions seeking new TSCA rules, a point he reiterated on the webinar.

There is an “unprecedented interest in all things TSCA by environmental groups. As a result you may well see environmental groups engaging in section 21 petitions in greater [number] than ever before,” he told the webinar…